Federationist Named One of Ten Outstanding Young Americans

Curtis Chong is a very dedicated
Federationist. He serves in several
elected positions: President of the
National Federation of the Blind in
Computer Science; Vice President of the
National Federation of the Blind of
Minnesota; and Immediate Past President
of the NFBM Metro Chapter. He can be
found at any hour of the day or evening
conferring with blind people about the
latest technology in the computer industry
or testing the most recent speech
software. He writes articles for Federation
newsletters, the Braille
Monitor, and Future Reflections. He is
available to do public speaking about
blindness and the Federation, and he
travels nationwide to NFB conventions,
Marches on Washington, and NAC Trackings.

Besides all this, Curtis holds
down a responsible job as Systems Programming
Specialist for IDS Financial
Services in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
On January 16-18 Curtis and his wife
Peggy traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where
Curtis was honored as one of Ten Outstanding
Young Americans by the U.S.
Jaycees. It was a weekend of banquets,
receptions, and press conferences, in
which Curtis, together with nine other
leading citizens of the United States,
received recognition for his achievements.

At the award ceremonies held on
January 18 Curtis received a replica of
two hands reaching toward each other on
a marble base with the inscription: "The
hope of mankind lies in the hands of
youth and action; Curtis D. Chong--one
of ten Outstanding Young Americans for
1986--presented by United States Jaycees--January 18, 1986."
The 1986 TOYA award which Curtis
received was preceded by two 1985 honors
also presented by the Jaycees. In
January of last year Curtis was given
the Distinguished Service Award by the
Minneapolis Jaycees, and one month later
he became one of Ten Outstanding Young
Minnesotans for 1985.

All of these awards were surrounded by
extensive press and media coverage, both
locally in Minnesota and throughout the
country. All Federationists are proud
of Curtis, who is highly deserving of
the honor bestowed upon him by the
Jaycees. Too often awards are given to
blind persons who regard themselves as
"exceptional" or "amazing." They accept
the. award as recognition of their
personal accomplishments, never giving credit to other blind individuals or any
organization that may have helped make
it possible. Not so with Curtis. He
proudly acknowledges the role of the
National Federation of the Blind in
making his life the success it is. He
also accepts responsibility for trying
to help improve the quality of life for
other blind people. Of course, that's
what makes Curtis a Federationist. He
speaks and lives the philosophy of the
Federation, and the publicity concerning
his award showed it, too. Here are a
few excerpts from news coverage of the
TOYA award:

Curtis Chong works with computers. He
also works for the independence of blind
people. "There are too many blind people
who, after losing their sight, come
out of rehabilitation agencies convinced
there's nothing for them but to sit at
home and do nothing. That's a real
tragedy, because they can go on and lead
productive lives," said Chong, computer
systems programmer for IDS Financial
Services in Minneapolis.

At first sheltered from the sighted
world by Hawaii's school for the blind,
Chong learned to be independent when he
entered the more competitive public
schools. After attending the University
of Minnesota for a short time, Chong
applied to a Minneapolis computer training
institute but was turned down because
of his blindness. But Chong persevered--he
was accepted at Brown Institute
and finished at the top of his
class with a 98.6 grade point average.
Since his teens, Chong has candidly
spoken out on issues concerning blind
people. In 1972 he spearheaded the
campaign against sheltered workshops in
Hawaii, leading to an open hearing. The
Minneapolis Jaycees is currently developing
a computer speech output system
with the National Federation of the
Blind. With it, he hopes to enhance
blind job seekers' marketability...

Under a picture of Curtis at his computer
at IDS Financial Services is the
caption: BREAKING DOWN THE BARRIERS
OF BLINDNESS--For his vision of making
computers more accessible to the blind,
Curtis Chong has been selected by the
U.S. Jaycees to be among the Ten Outstanding
Young Americans for 1986...

These are typical examples of the
press coverage. During numerous interviews
Curtis spoke of the seventy percent
unemployment rate among working-age
blind people and of what the Federation
is doing to reduce that figure. He
sopke of the real problems faced by
blind job seekers when at an interview
they are asked more questions concerning
their blindness than their abilities to
do the work. He explained the problems
blind people are having with the airlines
and how this discrimination is
harmful to the image of blind people
when it happens in the presence of coworkers.

Indeed,
it is encouraging and refreshing
to see this change in the approach
to a blind person's winning an award.
None of the melodrama and pity-invoking
anecdotes which tell of how this "unusual"
person "overcame" his "severe
handicap" in the publicity surrounding
Curtis' recognition.

Congratulations to Curtis on receiving
the award, on the achievements which
made the award possible, and on his
personal attitude and handling of the
news coverage surrounding the event.